By: Steve Wilmot
Everyone wants the same four things in life. It doesn’t matter whether they are Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, atheist, agnostic, or indifferent to religion altogether. We want…
Success. Someone to share life with. Self-respect. To be able to look at ourselves in the mirror and like what we.
Significance. We want to know we made a difference during our years on earth. To look back at the end of our life and see we made it count for something that will outlast us.
That’s what we want. Some people get them; most don’t. Jesus put these four wants in these words, “I came that they may have life, life to the fullest” (John 10.10).
Several years ago, Kevin Myers wrote Home Run. Using the analogy of a baseball diamond, he laid out God’s game plan for attaining the life we want.
Each base represents one of the four things we want in life. Success is third base; someone to share life with is second base; self-respect is first base; and significance is home plate.
Myers insists there is a right way and a wrong way to run the bases. In baseball if you run the bases backwards, you’re out. Likewise, if you try to run the bases of life backwards and spend most of your time clawing to become successful, you cheat every other base — family and friends, your character, and God.
You may not see it now while you’re pursuing success as your primary goal, but at some point in your life you’ll look back and see you’ve run the bases in the wrong order, and regrets will hound you for the rest of your life. You’ll wish for a do-over, but it’ll be too late.
There are two patterns designed to give you these four things you want. There is the pattern the world follows, and there’s the pattern God designed for us to follow. Both patterns have the same goal, but only one really works — God’s way.
Paul wrote in Romans 12.1: “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of the world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
Paul says we have a choice. We can do what the world does. Consider important what the world considers important. Structure our lives according to the priorities the world sets.
Chase career and financial success as the most important thing in life. Conform to the pressures of this performance-based world.
Then when we have time after 50 to 60 hours of work each week, we can squeeze in time for family and friends, and an hour each Sunday for God.
They won’t be our best hours because we’re exhausted and preoccupied with what we need to do the next day at work to take another step up the ladder of “success.”
Or we can be different. We can do things the opposite way the world does them. We can opt to follow the pattern God laid out for success — running the bases the right way.
In baseball, everything starts and ends at home plate. In God’s pattern, home plate is where we connect with him. Connection with God is the foundation upon which everything rests because he alone can show us what it takes to meet the deepest needs of our soul.
Then rather than running to third base (success), we run to first base where we work on character. Integrity. Honesty. Trustworthiness. Humility.
Unless we run to the character base before the success base, we’ll end up compromising our values and reputation if it advances our career and makes us more money.
Once we’ve cooperated with God in developing our character, we head for second base — relationships. If we’ve put success ahead of relationships with those we love, they’ll never get the best of our time and attention. They’ll get our leftovers and scraps.
People who get to the end of their lives never say, “I wish I’d worked more.” They say things like, “I wish I’d spent more time with my wife and kids.” “I wish I would have put God first.” “I wish I hadn’t compromised my character so much to try to get ahead.”
God doesn’t want you left with these kind of regrets as you look back upon your life. Regrets arising because you chased success ahead of God, character, and family.
Friend, if you realize you’re running the bases the wrong way, don’t ignore it. Act. It’s not too late for a course correction. Today, you can step up to the plate and begin or deepen your connection with God.
You can ask him to transform your character into one that reflects Jesus. You can put family and friends where they belong on your priority list.
You can do that today. It starts at home plate when you devote yourself to put God first in all you do. Hey, you hear that? I think it’s God calling us, “Batter up! Play ball!”
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Steve Wilmot is a former Edgerton, Ohio area pastor who now seeks “to still bear fruit in old age” through writing. He is the author of seven books designed to assist believers to make steady progress on their spiritual journey.
